It was a really long drive from Coonabarabran to Bellingen almost all the way back to the coast. Bellingen is a really small town, but there’s a great hostel next to the river and a handful of cool restaurants to eat at so it’s the perfect base to explore the Waterfall Way. This town completely shuts down at 7pm every night though. If you haven’t eaten, bought your groceries, or done whatever else you have to do by then, you’re…
I left Byron Bay super early in the morning because I had a looong drive to this next stop. Alternating between highways and twisty mountain roads for about 400 miles inland and I made it to the little town of Coonabarabran. I arrived right around sunset, checked into my hotel, got some dinner, and then got ready for the next day. I came all this way to do one really long hike in Warrumbungle National Park because I’m just crazy…
I flew to Tasmania from Sydney and from Tasmania straight back to Sydney to pick up where I left off. I immediately rented another car and drove north to my next planned stop, Port Macquarie. As I was leaving Sydney it started raining, then it started raining harder, and harder, the whole four hour drive. The weather in Port Macquarie was like a typhoon, crazy high winds and pouring rain and it wasn’t predicted to stop for about another week….
This bonus post is a little hodge podge of really short stops I made before and after Cradle Mountain. When I left Port Arthur I had an extra day. In retrospect, I could’ve spent that extra day in Cradle Mountain and had plenty to do, but I didn’t know that at the time. Instead, I drove up the east coast and spent one night in Bicheno. I arrived around sunset, so I just made a quick stop to the Bicheno…
On this stop, I’ll be hiking around a few different national parks, some state reserves, and several random sites. And I’m not really based in a city, I’m staying in a camp/hostel similar to my place in Port Arthur, but the main attraction in these parts is definitely Cradle Mountain National Park and that’s how everyone refers to the whole area, Cradle Mountain. I figured I’d start there. There are several trails around that can be combined into however long…
My next stop in Tasmania wasn’t very far away at all. It turns out Tasmania isn’t really that big. So, after the animal sanctuary up near Hobart, I also had time for a short hike to see the Tessellated Pavement. I didn’t fully understand it all, but silt flows from the rivers and collects and hardens near the ocean and over time, it dries and salt dissolves at varying rates and you get these bread loaf looking formations. I thought…
From Sydney I hopped on the train for a short ride to the airport and then jumped on a plane headed for Australia’s southernmost state, Tasmania. I’ll be starting this part of my adventure in Tasmania’s capital, Hobart. Hobart seems like a fairly quiet seaside town. If you like to eat seafood (yes I most certainly do) then this is the place. Yummmm! After getting a new rental car and checking in at the hostel I had just enough time…
My drive from Wollongong was smooth right up until I turned on the road that heads up into the Blue Mountains west of Sydney. It turns out I’m driving on Anzac Day, a pretty major holiday here in Australia, so the traffic was just ridiculous! I still made it to Faulconbridge, the hike I had planned to do along the way, just later than expected. Faulconbridge was about a nine mile round trip hike. It was pretty flat and uninteresting…
After Mungo National Park the next closest stop on my itinerary is clear on the other side of Victoria, a really really long drive. So I decided I needed to add a stop in between to break up that drive… and now I’m in Bendigo. I picked this place because I wanted to see the Great Stupa of Universal Compassion. Even though it’s a big modern construction, this place was pretty amazing. The main structure is modeled after the 15th…
I now find myself out in western Victoria in Grampians National Park. Grampians got hit really hard by bush fires this past year and as a result a huge swath of the park is closed. Several of the trails I wanted to do are off limits due to the fire damage. Luckily, enough of the park is still open to make it worthwhile. Driving here from the coast I saw a lot of these signs. I have a good feeling…